Mind Over Situation
by Yaoimelody
Summary: A bit of an unusual twist to their usual mornings... TechnoShipping, LavaShipping, Self-centeredShipping.


It was silent throughout the small home, it was nearing seven in the morning and they all were still asleep from the training that went quite late this time. They also had been too excited to fall right asleep as well, having been in the "NinjaBall Run" and Dareth being so full of chatter with never-ending praises and eagerly counting the prize money. A familiar creature started soaring over the home, a wire in its mind jerked it downward to the house. It landed by the window holding the ninja, all sprawled out on their sleeping bags, and went in through the open window. Crying out in a screech quietly, it awakened Zane fully, who was getting up slowly regardless.

"Hello friend," he greeted the falcon as it eagerly landed on the shoulder of the sitting up teenager. It nuzzled his face with its realistic beak happily, and gave a look of sadness. "No need to worry, I did not leave you purposefully."

A grumbling started as the high pitch screech let out again, this time in the normal frequency. A few of the others grumbled, and Jay squirmed and turned to face the android, "Please tell me I dreamed that," he sighed, not yet ready to open his eyes to the brightening world.

As if replying, the mechanical bird landed on the jutted hip of the blue ninja, then prodded gently at the arm as if proving he were indeed real. Zane chuckled as the brunet chuckled a pillow lazily at his face, missing a bit, "It is about time to get up anyways, you shall get a head start with me, even."

Mocking his boyfriend's voice, the younger turned and sat up abruptly, causing the falcon to flee up to the window cautiously. Rubbing his eyes before truly opening them, he ignored the dulling pain of sleeping on his back on the floor with such a bad bed substitute. Finally allowing his eyes the slight burning, he peered over at Zane, who was getting up officially and moving over to grab and change into his white ninja kimono. Jay stayed back, but was surprised to find Hinder, the little found kitten that usually resided at Dareth's dojo, rushing through the room after the blond left. It ran at full speed towards the robotic creature in the windowsill and got ready to pounce, but the falcon flew off before it could even really attempt it.

Then the multicolored pet turned its attention towards Kai, eagerly getting into a pouncing crouch at the slightly twitching outstretched hand. The spiky brunet was on his stomach and had his face in the pillow, which surprised Jay how he could even breathe. The kitten pounced on the hand, dropping to his side and nibbled the index finger cutely. Then it decided that was boring, so making his way up the sleeping figure, Hinder then began to lap at the exposed neck and ear. As Jay got up, he nearly let his laughter carry as the other brunet turned to face the fur ball and giggle a bit in his sleep.

"Cole stop it," grinned the fire-wielder, not yet opening his eyes.

Said male was then woken up and glared over at his boyfriend, only to watch Hinder licking all over the tanned face, "Calling Hinder the wrong name might hurt his feelings," chuckled the dark-haired teenager before sighing and slowly getting up, knowing he wouldn't be able to fall back asleep anyways.

"What do you-" Kai opened his eyes to see the large eyes of the nuisance staring back at him innocently. He leapt up and the kitten gave its usual rusty purr and rubbed against the silky red pant leg, not noticing the look of horror.

Zane was back, but wasn't paying attention on tripped over Lloyd's sleeping bag, but caught himself in time before his head met the wooden floor. The green ninja looked irked, "What time is it?"

The ice ninja stared out the window, "It looks to be only about seven, but we can have more practice now," the others wanted to complain, but Hinder rushing throughout once again distracted them to him. They liked the kitten, but it wasn't safe for a cat to be going around the city alone, especially a more home-oriented one.

"What's he doing here?" Kai asked as Jay took his turn with the bathroom, hoping he was next so the little cat would stop literally nipping his heels so much.

"He appears to be craving attention, and figured out where we lived somehow," guessed Zane, "Though I thought Dareth would be taking closer care with him. Perhaps he is still sleeping?"

The others still in a room wanted to point out that Dareth liked to usually sleep until about noon, but Jay came back rather quickly and the red ninja sped out with his own ninja attire to change into.

"Then I guess we'll just wait for Dareth to come get Hinder," yawned Lloyd, but had no trouble falling back to sleep.

- -

Dareth got up slowly, then realized an alarm was blazing way too early, the glaring numbers that proved it was a bit past seven caused him to huff. Sitting up groggily and running a slow hand through his rarely product-free hair, he shifted in the king sized bed to find the side closer to the wall was empty and well made. 'So he didn't stay?' thought the dojo master, having a bad day right off the bat and turning back to slap the clock so it shut off the annoying tune, but it ended up turning into the radio part of it. Finding it to be a catchy pop culture tune, he smiled gently and moved out of the warmness to the slight chill of the air-conditioned bedroom. Slipping out of his neutral sleeping kimono and into his two-piece ninja suit, the dark brunet sighed when the song was over.

The new song wasn't as good, but he was too lazy to attempt to change it, so he rummaged the bedside table for his golden medallion necklace, then remembering that his boyfriend had taken it after their odd relationship had started. He made his way out of his room, but ran into a built chest covered by a silky purple kimono and shot his head up to find his partner had actually stayed over the night after all. He wrapped his arms eagerly around the other's neck, rising up on his tiptoes slightly to reach.

"I hope you don't mind if I took a shower," breathed Garmadon in his ear, and caused Dareth to shiver inadvertently.

The dojo owner shook his head happily, trying not to imagine that in too much detail at the moment, and decided on just running his hands through the other's medium length light brunet hair eagerly. After realizing this was one of the first times the other allowed the silky hair out of its ponytail in some time, he then let it go and ran a hand through his own smooth hair. "Looks like I need to get ready too," smiled Dareth, but he was honestly glad he took showers before bed; it would be a drag in the morning.

With the dark lord in tow, the men took up space in the bathroom. The younger grabbed a toothbrush and some paste, putting it on the bristles and clicking the lid back on the tube, and throwing it back down. He turned on the faucet and watered it enough to soften up the teeth cleaner, and stuck it in his mouth to get a satisfactory clean. Glancing over, he nearly spit out his toothbrush as the older pulled out a sharp knife the kitchen had from his loose pocket quickly. Instead of wielding it, he stuck it in his opened mouth and began to scrape at his canines on the sides.

'That explains that,' mused Dareth as he continued to brush his teeth. After he was finished when a few minutes passed by, he spit out the paste into the sink and began to wash out his toothbrush under running water. Feeling satisfied enough, the dark brunet looked over at his boyfriend to find the other male only starting on his other canine. Shaking his head slightly, he grabbed the hair gel bottle sitting out of the counter, the spun off the bottom of it, squeezing a random amount onto his hand. Garmadon was done by now, slipping the knife back into the pocket, and then growing curious as he turned his attention to the shorter man.

Dareth moved his palms together to get about an even amount going between them and get it warm enough to work easier. Dodging his bangs for the moment, he ran the fingers smoothly through the surprisingly knot-free mane and had it stick down to his head. Then his caught the hair that was over his ears, and got it to go behind them easily. Clearly he had much practice, then the "encore"; which was him bringing the bangs down and making sure they were efficiently slicked up, then paused for a moment and made to slightly stick out his tongue and bring the hair on his forehead back into an older hairdo copy easily. Looking pleased with himself, he carefully turned on the faucet again and ran his fingers under it to get the greasy feeling off them.

They moved out to the main room after deciding they weren't so hungry yet, but Garmadon noticed Dareth's crestfallen stare at the gaping hole in the wall. Feeling guilty he went back to the bedroom and found his leather pants, grabbing money from them and making his way back out to the dojo area. The darker brunet glanced over and his jaw dropped a bit, "Uh, what's that for? I can pay for the damages with my own money… I have that prize money you know…"

The dark lord grinned weakly, "Well, it was my fault that happened…"

It took the other a minute, until he looked betrayed, "So that company really did unscramble to spell your name…" he refused eye contact, "Why did you destroy my dojo for, though?"

"Because I wanted… to see you somehow… at the race," tried Garmadon, "I was planning on getting the ninja agitated and you to go along with them," as the other began to be skeptical, the older continued quickly, "Then I would pay you this money and you would get prized money that you could use when I'm not there."

"How romantic," teased Dareth, but it sounded funnier since the man already had a different sort of voice anyways. They began to laugh together, and they then thought it best to ignore the problem obvious to the whole town. "But I still can't believe how much of a sore loser you are."

Feeling a bit childish, the opposing male pecked the tanned forehead gently to smother his anger slightly, "They cheated, clearly, and I would've given you the money anyways."

"Good for me, then," grinned Dareth goofily and he was quickly kissed to end the gloating in its tracks. Then the brunet pulled away suddenly, and turned around to start for the kitchen. "Here Hinder, here kitty, you get an early breakfast today…" his slightly higher voice used towards the kitten didn't help, and he began to grow a bit frantic. Then… he rushed back out to the main room and stared at the huge gap in the wall weakly. "Hinder got out, I think."

"I think I better go," sighed Garmadon, pecking the olive skin gently, but was stopped by a hand as he went towards the bedroom.

Dareth pouted visibly, "If you didn't put a hole in the wall, Hinder wouldn't have gotten out."

"I'll go find him then," Garmadon changed his plans quickly, hoping to get back in good with his partner. He thought of the golden staff to come to him, and it flew through the hallway eagerly, rushing into the powerful palm with a loud snap. He thought of where the kitten could be, but it ended where the ninja were living. They were seated at the breakfast table, and Lloyd was babying Hinder by feeding him pieces of Cole's burnt muffins sneakily under the table. Rolling his eyes, Garmadon stopped the visions and held his head slightly as a headache formed, "He's with the ninja now, don't worry."

"Oh good," Dareth practically sand and changed into quickly hugging him, but noticed the other had a pained face. "Here, I'll stay with the ninja today, and you can sleep off the headache in my bed, okay?"

Relieved, he watched as the money he handed the brunet was finally putt into the pocket and tilted his head slightly, "Wait… you trust me here alone?"

Surprised at how hopeful the tone was, Dareth nodded after a bit and went to the front door and opened it, "Yeah, I guess I'm not as paranoid as everyone else or something."

Nodding respectively, Garmadon watched as his boyfriend left the dojo and walked down the sidewalk. Unsure how to react, the dark lord spun around and realized that this was what a true dating relationship was like. He wasn't sure whether or not he wanted to think more on this or not, but his head screamed for a nice, long nap. Then as he got into the bed, he sighed and decided to stay the night again to show gratitude towards the other brunet; who always begged him to have "sleepovers" most the time. This was a two-sided deal, after all. Though… perhaps he wanted to stay around and keep someone satisfied with his behavior…


End file.
